The present invention relates to pane/frame structures in general, and more particularly to a pane/frame structure which has impact-impeding properties.
There are already known various constructions of the impact-impeding structures of the type here under consideration, among them such which include a pane extending along a plane and having a front and a rear side, and an impact-impeding frame for the pane, wherein the frame includes an outer frame member and an inner frame member received in the outer frame member. The frame members are provided at least at one of the front and rear sides of the pane with impact-impeding elements of an aluminum alloy and define with one another a labyrinthine gap situated at a region of the impact-impeding elements and including a single stage extending at least substantially parallel to the plane of the pane.
So, for instance, the German Pat. DE-PS 28 18 745 discloses a window or door structure of the above type in which the casement frame member and the window or door opening frame member are made of profiled sections of aluminum, and wherein respective impact-impeding plates made of an aluminum alloy are glued or welded to the outer side or the inner side of the profiled aluminum sections of the casement frame and of the opening frame. The impact-impeding plates are so configured at the region of the gap between the casement frame and the opening frame that a fold comes into existence in the width of the gap, this fold having a step at the area of the center of the impact-impeding plates, this step extending parallel to the plane of the window or door pane.
It is further known to make the frames of a window, of a door and of a stationary glass pane of heat-insulated composite profiled elements, in which a profiled aluminum section is constructed as an impact-impeding structural element, has a larger wall thickness than the other metallic profiled element and consists of a special metallic alloy. Insulating rods which are situated between the two profiled metallic rails or sections are connected with the metallic rails by pressing respective metallic webs of the metallic profiled rails against respective longitudinally extending marginal bulges of the insulating rods. At the region of the gap between the opening frame and the casement frame, the impact-impeding metallic profiled rails form an abutment in the form of a step which extends parallel to the plane of the window or door pane.
In the heretofore known constructions, when the one-step labyrinthine gap between the opening frame and the casement frame receives a direct hit or impact by a projectile, only 50% at the most of the effective thickness of the impact-impeding structural elements is available at this region for impeding the impact.